


Any Given Day

by lotsofthinkythoughts (Mianna)



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, fake marriage trope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-10
Updated: 2014-01-10
Packaged: 2018-01-08 02:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1127390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mianna/pseuds/lotsofthinkythoughts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Rose wonders about cause and effect. Now is not one of those times.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Any Given Day

**Author's Note:**

> Written for tumblr's dw-secret-santa exchange for rointheta.

Sometimes Rose wondered how they got themselves into the situations they ended up in. Of course, she knew most of it could be contributed to the fact they were both curious and had a tendency to poke at things that seemed abnormal (though really, she thought that was more his fault than her own, but she was willing to admit on occasion her own curiosity had caused trouble). Tonight was not one of those times she was left wondering.

The fact that she was currently pressed against the Doctor’s side with his arm wrapped around her shoulders pretending to be his wife was solidly her own fault. 

After all, she’d been the one to take the envelope from the boy that had been handing them out while the Doctor looked at some sort of part he could use for the TARDIS. Not that she’d known what it was at the time (or that he’d given her much choice, practically shoving the thing in her hands and walking away before she had a chance to say anything other than “Wha-”), or else she definitely wouldn’t have taken it, considering the Doctor’s subsequent lecture on the Delmoni cultural taboo against rejecting invitations - because apparently rejecting an invitation resulted in arrest, especially when it was personally addressed.

(Rose thought that made it a bit more than a ‘cultural taboo’, but she wasn’t going to question the Doctor on that, and she didn’t even want to begin thinking about how the Doctor had managed to get a personally addressed invitation when they’d only been on the planet two hours.)

Of course, even with the taboo, Rose had thought they were going to cut and run, as generally happened when they were forced into attending most formal events. But once they made it back to the TARDIS, the Doctor had sent her to the Wardrobe Room, explaining as they navigated the corridors that he’d overheard a rumour of people going missing after these parties.

Which is how they’d ended up here. Pretending to be married, because apparently that was the norm. Rose also suspected it was because all the people who had gone missing were couples, according to the rumours.

* * *

 

“Rose?”

Blinking, Rose looked up at the Doctor who was looking at her expectantly. “Sorry, what was that?”

“Caril just asked how long we’d been together,” he said, leaning down to whisper in her ear, then tilting his head at the tall couple (they had a similar willowy build than most of the Delmoni, something the Doctor had explained was due to lower gravity) that had all but cornered them five minutes ago. She wasn’t sure which member of the pair was Caril, but she smiled at them both and hoped that would make up for it.

“Well then, Rose, how long has it been?” The woman smiled indulgently, but her eyes held clear expectations of receiving an answer this time.

Rose tilted her head back to look up at him. “Only a couple of years. He still forgets though, so I like to try and see if he remembers on his own.”

The woman seemed to take it at face value. 

“Practically newlyweds still, then. Give it time. He’ll learn. It took Faro nearly five years before he remembered our anniversary without prompting.” The woman chuckled a bit. “Well, we’ll leave you to enjoy the party. After all, we still haven’t greeted all our guests.”

As the pair swept off to another part of the room, Rose stepped away from the Doctor, extricating herself from the circle of his arms. For a moment it seemed like he was reluctant to let her go, his cool hand lingering on her shoulder, but it was only a moment and the sensation was gone.

She watched as their apparent hosts slipped into a small group of people on the other side of the room.

“We should follow them,” he said, watching the couple, his height making it easier to see through what looked like an impenetrable crush of people to her.

She took a step forward and pushed up on her toes in an attempt to get more of a view as, even with her heels, she was still by far the shortest person in the room. The hem of her dress brushed against the back of her legs as, but her movement came to an abrupt halt as the Doctor wrapped a hand around her arm as though he was going to pull her into another embrace. 

“Doctor?” 

“Hmm?” he said, looking down at her and letting his hand slide down her arm to take her hand.

“I don’t think they’re the kidnappers.”

 “You’ve noticed something?”

Rose nodded and tried not to focus on his hand in hers. It wasn’t like it was a new experience, but his thumb was brushing circles over her skin, a tiny affectionate gesture that he’d never displayed before. Unfortunately, she wasn’t doing such a good job of ignoring it – this whole night seemed designed to drive her mad. Pretending to be married, because all the people who’d gone missing were couples, and newlywed couples at that.

It wasn’t as though physical affection was abnormal for them, but this – this was a whole new level. His arm had been around her waist practically all night, his thumb brushing against her side in soft strokes whenever they were stopped by other guests, which happened often enough seeing as they were off-worlders. It was only a bare whisper of contact, but after the fourth or fifth pass, it was enough to make her shiver. Not only that but the way his arm was wrapped around her was like being in a prolonged hug, which made her shiver even more, her mind wandering after being pressed against him so tightly the first time to what it would be like to be held that close to him without the crowd.   


After the first half hour, she’d begun doing what she could to make him feel as flustered as she did. It might have been a bit childish, but she couldn’t help it – he’d been so calm and collected the whole time, while she felt as though she were blushing at the smallest thing. So, in retaliation, she’d started snuggling in closer, laying her head on his chest when conversations ran a bit long. When that didn’t elicit much of a response except for a single strange hitched breath the first time she did it, she’d upped the ante by kissing him.

Not real kisses. She had to admit as there was a small part of her that, no matter how frustrated she was at the moment, still feared his rejection. That was why she’s relegated all of her kisses to his cheek, rather than giving him the kind of light kisses that couples thoughtlessly exchanged all the time.

She shook herself out of her thoughts, noticing suddenly that the Doctor’s eyes had taken on a slightly confused cast, which told her she’d been caught in the sensation and her musings longer than she should have been.

“Rose?”

“Sorry, got a bit distracted. But they can’t be the kidnappers – ‘s too obvious.”

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. “Occam’s Razor, Rose. The simplest answer is generally the right one.”

Rose rolled her eyes. She didn’t actually know who Occam was, but she was sure it was some science-y something.

“Well, that might be true sometimes, but not with people – people are… complicated. Besides – it’s been four couples in as many weeks, you said. They couldn’t possibly have hosted that many parties and had no one suspect anything.”

The Doctor tilted his head in acquiescence though she was sure he was still thinking. “That’s what I like about you Rose Tyler, always noticing the obvious.”

She wasn’t quite sure if that was supposed to be a compliment or not, but his enthusiasm was enough to make her smile up at him as though it was.

“Yeah, well, let me go be observant on my own for a bit, yeah?”

His grip on her hand tightened, his fingers curling around hers as though the mere idea of separation was frightening.

Before he had a chance to say anything, Rose exhaled and laughed just a bit at his protectiveness. “I’m just going to find the loo, Doctor.”

He released her hand with an exhaled “oh” and she tried not to shiver at the abrupt loss of the weight of his hand in hers as he let her step away.

“Don’t wander off,” she said, pointing at him. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

“I’m not the one who wanders off, I’ll have you know!” he called after her, but she just shook her head and gave him a careless wave as she walked away.

* * *

 

It was a universal constant, it seemed, that there was a stream of gossip in the ladies’. It was no different on Delmon, Rose found. There was a font of discussion, some relevant and some not. Fiddling with her hair, she listened as the disappearances were brought up. There was a good deal of bemoaning how absolutely terrible the whole business was, but it became abundantly clear in a matter of minutes that all the people who had disappeared were almost entirely disliked by the community. When the chatter shifted to some local singer’s new album, Rose moved away from the mirrored wall and out into the main room again, looking for the Doctor as she moved among the sea of people.

Just as she had spotted the Doctor, somewhat cornered by someone, (really, what was most identifiable was his trainers as most of her view of him was blocked by the man in front of him) she felt fingers brush her upper arm. She jumped in surprise, turning quickly on her heel and almost losing her balance.

“Whoa there! Careful.”

Once she’d regained her balance Rose smoothed her skirt and smiled at the woman who’d helped her. “Thanks.”

“Not a problem, it was my fault to begin with for startling you.”

She nodded, keeping a vague smile on her face. “What did you want? I’d ask if I knew you, but I know better than that, since the Doct- umm, that is, my husband and I haven’t been here very long.”

Rose almost missed the flash of glee in the other woman’s eyes when she spoke. It was odd, but before she had a chance to ponder it, the woman was speaking.

“Oh, I could tell. That’s why I came to speak to you. It’s obvious you aren’t…. ahem… native.”

The woman clearly wasn’t Delmoni either. She was too short, for one, and lacked the pastel coloring they had as well.

“It is a bit obvious, I guess.”

“I’m Aida. I thought since we’re the only other off-worlders that I know of, I’d introduce myself.”

“Well, I was just getting back to the Doctor, if you wanted to come with me,” Rose said, pointing the Doctor’s general direction.

Aida nodded, and looked over to where Rose indicated, before breaking into a wide smile. “Oh, that’s just perfect. It looks as though my husband has already met yours!”

As they approached the two men, Rose could hear the Doctor talking.

“Oh, Rose wanders off quite often, but she always comes back. Usually with trouble in tow – Oh, and speaking of –” he was saying, breaking into a smile as he caught sight of her.

“Who’s your friend?”

Rose grinned back, moving past Aida’s husband to stand by him. Almost immediately, his arm went around her shoulder, pulling her close to him and though a part of her thought she imagined it, she was almost sure she felt him drop a kiss onto the top of her head. “Ah, Rose, this is Arcturo.”

“Oh, and I see she HAS brought trouble with her. Doctor, meet my wife Aida,” the man said as Aida stepped up beside him. 

There were two things almost immediately obvious about Arcturo and Aida. One, they were extremely chatty (It was to the point that Rose decided they’d finally met someone who could out talk the Doctor, which was a frightening prospect), and two, they were far more interested in how long they’d been together than any of the other people they’d chatted with that night.

The topic came up many times over the course of the evening, as they WERE pretending to be married, but this conversation had taken it to extreme levels. It was almost as if they were being interrogated, Rose thought. The Doctor, however, didn’t seem to be bothered by the questioning; in fact, he answered with the same ease he talked about temporal mechanics or the history of any given planet they visited. 

Rose wasn’t sure what to think of it, if she was honest. She knew that he could tell there was something not right about the couple’s questioning even if he was answering. She puzzled over it as discreetly as she could.

At least, she did until the Doctor answered the latest in a string of oblique inquiries about how long they’d been together.

“Two years, five months, twelve days, four hours, twenty seven minutes and eight seconds.” His voice was firm, the tone that of a man who was absolutely certain.

Both Arcturo and Aida merely stared in response, clearly just as surprised by the answer as Rose had been. Luckily, Rose recovered first, moving away from him, and grabbing one of his hands.

“Excuse us,” she said before subsequently dragging him away, looking for a place they might avoid being interrupted.

* * *

 

Five minutes later, the Doctor and Rose were halfway down a darkened corridor.

“What was that?”

“What was what?”

Rose raised an eyebrow in disbelief as her hands went to her hips. “You know what I’m talking about, Doctor. The whole minutes and seconds thing.”

“They asked how long we’d been together!” he said, as though that answered everything.

“So? They asked that five different times and you deflected every single one. Not that they’d have noticed, but I know you. You don’t answer questions like that, not ever, so what’s going on?”

He looked at her with an expression Rose couldn’t quite parse in the dim light. “You said I’d forgotten. Earlier.”

Rose blinked, unsure of what to say to that revelation. She exhaled and looked at her feet. Before she could formulate a response the Doctor tilted her head up with a gentle nudge of her chin.

“I haven’t, you know. Not one minute – I couldn’t. I know that lately you might have felt like I’ve forgotten but I swear to you I haven’t.”

His voice was so earnest and sincere (and just a little desperate for her to believe him) that before she knew what she was doing, she’d tilted her head up so that her lips hovered right over his.

“I know,” she whispered, before leaning in to kiss him.

* * *

 

Rose would have liked to say it was one of those moments where the Earth spun on its axis suddenly, or that fireworks exploded, or any of the romance novel clichés happened.

The truth of the matter was that as soon as her lips touched his, they both heard voices coming down the hallway. Rose groaned, and she was fairly sure she heard the Doctor mutter a curse under his breath, before he took a step back towards the wall behind him. In the dim light, Rose couldn’t really see, but she heard the tell-tale click of a door opening, and that was enough to get her moving, the two of them pulling to door shut just as the voices became distinct.   


As soon as the door closed, it became exceedingly obvious that the room they were in was really more of a closet. However, instead of having an opportunity to continue what they’d (attempted to) start in the corridor, something else became apparent as well.

There was something else in there with them.

“Doctor?” Rose whispered, looking at a glow coming from one of the top-most shelves.

He didn’t respond, merely pulled out his sonic and reached up, pulling the glowing (and whispering) object down. The motion had him stretched out against her, his body pressed against hers in a way she was quite fond of, and that she wished was happening somewhere other than a glorified broom cupboard because of some sort of glo-stick.

Though Rose had to admit, once she could see it, it was  mesmerizing.

“What is it?” Rose asked, feeling a strange urge to touch it. She reached out, but before she could come in contact, the Doctor batted her hand away.

“Don’t touch it Rose! This is a Derispian battery.”

She glared at him in the greenish glow of the battery. “Why can’t I touch it? You are.”

“My consciousness isn’t compatible with the interface – too complex. Derispian batteries run on consciousness. On Derispa, they plug them into interfaces, charge them, and let them run until the charge dies. This is a travel model – made for ships and the like. It can absorb a consciousness through touch, and run for years – the closest concept on Earth in your time is a perpetual motion machine, of course it’s not exactly perpetual motion, the charge still runs out, but –”

“Doctor,” Rose said, reaching out to touch him, then thinking better of it and knocking her foot against his instead. “Stop. I really don’t care, just, what’s it doing here?”

“That is the question, isn’t it Rose? I think I know why our chatty friends were so –”

“Chatty?” she supplied, cheeky grin coming out in full force.

“Was going to say nosy, but that too.”

* * *

 

When it came down to it, resolving the whole mess was a lot simpler than it usually was. The Doctor disabled the battery with the sonic, flushing the stores at the same time, sending each consciousness back where it belonged, since it could only house them, not break the tether to the body.

Somewhere in a five kilometer radius, the eight missing people were waking up.

Once the battery was well and truly dead, there hadn’t been much of a confrontation to be had. Aida and Arcturo admitted that their ship had crashed outside the city months before. Most of the repairs had been simple, but the power source needed recharging.

Aida looked at Rose beseechingly. “All we wanted was to go home. We didn’t want to hurt anyone – that’s why we -” The rest of her sentence was lost in her tears.

There was a part of her that did feel for the pair. She knew that feeling of just wanting to be back where you belonged. But their methods had frightened an entire community.

“We can take you back to your planet – ” Rose started, but was cut off by Arcturo.

“No. No. We will not ask that of you. Not after how we planned to use you both.”

 After that, the pair left without looking back, leaving Rose and the Doctor standing in the dimmed corridor alone.

He tossed the dead battery up in the air once, before catching it and depositing it in his pocket. Silently he took her hand, threading their fingers together like always.

“Back to the TARDIS then?” Rose asked, a part of her not quite ready to let go of their charade.

“Welll, -” He hedged for a moment, taking his empty hand and running it through his hair. “We don’t have to. Still a chance for dancing. You know, if you want.”

Rose smiled up at him. “Yeah. Alright.”

When they made it back to the party, the dancing was already in full swing, and she couldn’t help the laughter that spilled forth as he dragged her onto the teeming dance floor, leading her in a complex series of turns, spins and dips that kept her on her toes.   
  
As the music faded out, he pulled her in close to him, changing from their athletic steps to a soft swaying. “Rose?”

She hummed in response, burying her face tightly against his chest.

“You – you kissed me – back there, in the corridor.”

Rose pulled back from him, her cheeks flaming. “Yeah, yeah. I’m sorry, s’just –” She ducked her head. “Sorry.”

“I – I thought maybe you’d like to try it again?” He questioned hesitantly, sounding so nervous that Rose’s head snapped up to look him in the eye.

There was no tease or joke in his gaze and all Rose could do was nod and murmur an affirmative “Yeah. I’d like that.”

* * *

 

Sometimes Rose wondered how they ended up in the situations they did. But now wasn’t one of those times. She knew exactly how and why she’d ended up on an alien dance floor with the Doctor about to kiss her properly.

Maybe this would change everything. Maybe it wouldn’t. For all she knew he might never mention this moment again. But right here, right now, she was exactly where she wanted to be.


End file.
